June 2nd Games Show Notes and Results

It all came together on June 2nd, the weather, the riders, the horses and even a good number of spectators. What a great day it turned out to be. By the end of the day we had 32 rider/horse combinations and that makes for some fun competition.

Yesterday seemed to be a day of firsts, with several riders showing for their very first time. We want to welcome Tianna Howes on Spot on Specialist and Danielle Royston on Rocky to the world of showing and especially to the Mission Horse Club. Yesterday was also the first time I can remember where more than 10% of the riders were male. Larry Mapstone, Ryder Davies-Illander, Zach and Sam Chambers and Lucas Gawehns all put on great performances. Way to go guys, it was sure nice to see some balance in the game. Believe it or not, there was a time when the rider mix at shows was about equal guys and gals.

Yesterday also saw the first Canadian horse to compete at MHC in a few years. Alisha Smith rode Fancy to place in most classes. It was nice to see this historical breed whose foundations in Canada date back to 1665, at our show. We hope to see lots more of you and Fancy in the future Alisha.

Carleigh Knapp rode barrels for her first time and managed to turn in a respectable time. Raylene Kocsis generously let her ride Leroy and coached her around the barrels. Something tells me Carleigh got bit by the barrel racing bug. Way to go Raylene.

And, Hansi Thompson brought her Thoroughbred Rita to her very first show where she did great. Of course that speaks volumes to Hansi’s abilities, but wait a minute! Hansi on a Thoroughbred? Who would have thought.

However there was one first we hope to never see again – Angie De Jong’s potentially disastrous fall. At the start of her Keyhole run, the off-side billet broke on her saddle and the saddle rolled off to the left, hurling Angie to the ground where she hit her hips and head very hard. Meanwhile, the wreck continued to unfold as the saddle rolled under Deeba and sent her careening away and then bucking back towards Angie, who was down and not moving. Eventually, the breast collar broke and freed Deeba, who then ran off and calmed down enough for Shelly Mooney to catch her. While this seemingly slow motion disaster played out before us, our hearts were in our mouths in the show booth as the announcer for the day was Angie’s mom Leslie.

After several minutes, and attendance by our very capable first aid people, Angie was able to get up and walk off to cheers and clapping from the crowd. Whatever your thoughts on making helmets mandatory, and there’s been a bunch of facebook discussion on that lately, I don’t think anyone can argue that Angie wearing a helmet yesterday was a very good thing.

Special thanks to our volunteers; the usual bunch included Shane and Samantha Howes, Tanya Perry, Chris Everitt, Colleen Kocsis. Also helping were Larry Mapstone and his wife and a couple of guys I rounded up to help haul poles. Thanks guys.

And a really big thanks to Leslie Cronjaeger for being guest announcer for the day. In one of those rare moments where life comes full circle, I was able to show Leslie how to score keep on the computer. It was Leslie who taught me how to score keep on the old paper system.

High Point Results are as follows:

Masters: Dianne Amyotte on Peppy, Reserve to Heidi Gawehns on Jack

Seniors: Raylene Kocsis on Sofie, Reserve to Andrea Walker on Indy

Intermediate: a two way tie between Kassidy Howes on I’m a Sepcialist Too and Shae-Lynn Ringrose on Annika

Juniors: Krista Mooney on Scotty, Reserve to Tianna Howes on Spot on Specialist

PeeWees: Madysen Smith on Rhea, Reserve to Laura Perry on Buttons

LeadLine: Danielle Royston on Rocky, with Reserve going to Ryder Davies-Illander on Annik and Samuel Chambers on Dayton.

Thanks everyone for a great show. We’ll see you next week at the June 9th English/Western Performance Show.

Ride safely, and don’t forget to give all your tack a good going over for safety, especially that off-side billet.